Page 3133 - Week 15 - Thursday, 14 December 1989
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Mr Speaker, I regret that I start on a sour note. With all committee activity this year and with the 10 or 11 reports that we have tabled, committee members have observed the convention that we should not comment on the findings of the committee, on certain of the private hearings that we have had and on our deliberations. With one exception, perhaps, that has been scrupulously observed. However, it was not the case on this occasion. Following a media briefing by Mr Collaery yesterday, a comprehensive and accurate report of this was - - -
Mr Collaery: I have never seen this.
MR WOOD: Well, you did not need to see it.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR WOOD: It was a very careful choice of words, Mr Collaery. You did not need to see it, but that report appeared last night on television. It was accurate; it was comprehensive. I hope that that breach of the conventions of this Assembly and of the committees is not a sign of what might come with this new Government. Already there are disturbing signs. I regret that.
Mr Whalan: Where else would Fia get the information from?
MR WOOD: Where else?
Mr Collaery: I did not speak to her.
MR WOOD: Still, I am happy to have been asked to table this report. I am happy to carry on this task. But that raises an interesting question: why am I doing it? Mr Kaine, quite properly, is Chief Minister now and he passed it over. Mr Duby is a Minister and he passed it over. Mr Jensen is an executive deputy and he passed it over. I am happy to do it.
Mr Jensen: So was I.
MR WOOD: You were happy? The Government is so lacking in knowledge of what it is doing and where it is going that it conceded that I was the only one of the committee who could now do this job.
Mr Kaine: I have great faith in you, Bill. That is why.
MR WOOD: Well, thank you. In so doing, the Government has totally demolished the argument it will shortly use to support its proposed committee structure. It shot itself, not in the foot but in the head. Mr Kaine, no doubt, has a prepared speech saying that executive deputies can serve on committees and indeed chair them, but here I am, on my feet, the only one today who can table this report. I demonstrate the falsity of any such claim.
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